Animal welfare

December 30, 2009

In the iconic Mackenzie Basin, plans to factory farm cows are stirring up a storm. Farmers say irrigating the land is the only answer to their economic struggle. Environmentalists say this will destroy rare ecosystems. And the tourism industry fears the loss of a unique landscape. Who will save the Mackenzie, and how?

You'll need to purchase a copy of this week's issue of the NZ Listener to read the full feature, or wait until it is available online, on 23 January 2010. Very worthwhile holiday reading.

Proposals by the three companies for resource consents for 16 new dairy farm developments managing nearly 18,000 cows housed in cubicle stables are before Environment Canterbury (ECan).

Under the plan

cows will be confined in cubicle stables 24 hours a day for eight months of the year, from March to October, and allowed outside for 12 hours a day from November to February.

Cubicle farming involves each cow having its own cubicle, where it can return to lie down or sleep, and a "stable" area where it can eat and socialise with other cows.

Herd sheds are not new to New Zealand and are common in Europe. Used appropriately they provide shelter for the cows from climatic extremes and cows are able to come and go at will.

Cows to be kept inside for eight months

The proposed development in the Mackenzie Basin is in a different league. This proposes keeping cows inside for eight months of the year and then allowing them access to grass for 12 hours a day for the remaining four months.

Minister of Agriculture David Carter comments on intensive farming in the Mackenzie Basin

"I am concerned about the proliferation of dairying in fragile environments. They shouldn't be allowed to proceed unless we can be sure they can mitigate any adverse environment effects.

He then goes on to say

"Providing it adheres to acceptable animal welfare standards, I don't think there are issues there."

National Animal Welfare Advisory Council (NAWAC) chairman, Dr John Hellstrom, speaking on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme, noted that herd sheds were not necessarily a bad thing but that current welfare guidelines did not cater for the Mackenzie Basin proposal. He further noted that animal welfare considerations were paramount in setting guidelines.

Keeping all the eggs in one basket

Farming's love affair with dairying has seen huge areas of rural New Zealand sold off at outrageous prices and turned into dairy farms. Dairy farming on the Canterbury Plains - land ideally suitable for arable farming - has seen huge amounts of water sucked out of rivers and aquifers for irrigation. Effluent pollution is seeping into those aquifers and ruining important water sources.

And what if the bottom falls out of dairying? With all the eggs in the dairying basket there is now insufficient diversification to protect rural New Zealand - and the economy - should the rest of the world decide some other protein source is the Next Best Thing.

October 09, 2009

Significant animal welfare issues have been identified by MAF on some of the Crafar farms (in receivership).

MAF Director-General Murray Sherwin advises that staff have now inspected all Crafar properties and have found problems such as under weight animals with underlying health issues, inadequate feed, overstocking, and lack of shelter for calves.

Action has been taken at some farms to alleviate immediate problems

Regular and consistent input from veterinarians and farm consultants has also been instructed and organised.

MAF are working with the Crafar farm receivers on remedial activity and will continue to collaborate and stabilise these properties for the long term.

“Animal welfare is our highest concern and the most important aspect of any investigation is the animals. While on farm inspections have been completed, and some serious animal welfare issues identified investigations are ongoing and evidence is still being gathered.

It will take time before specific prosecution decisions are made."

MAF is being assisted by industry groups such as Dairy NZ, Fonterra and Federated Farmers, who are all committed to animal welfare and expediting recovery on Crafar properties.

The growth in large herd dairying over the last decade has been
explosive. Often funded by massive debt, these farms with more than
1,000 cows have changed the nature of dairying in New Zealand. They
require a different style of management, different corporate
structures, different ways of managing and recruiting staff, and
different ways of managing animals.

New Zealand has never done a stock-take into a major change in the
way we use land. It’s time to take a breather and work out whether this
structural shift in our biggest export industry can be sustained
without damaging our reputation, blowing out our our debts and putting
massive strain on workers and animals.

The big conversions and irrigation driven expansion is continuing
apace. Applications to build 19 farms with more than 22,000 cows on
25,000 hectares in the Mackenzie Basin are being considered by
Environment Canterbury, the ODT has reported. This type of farming requires intensive irrigation and cows to be in cubicle barns in winter and parts of Summer.

Farmer after farmer has added yet more horrific information about
the unspeakable practices adopted by some of these large-scale farming
operations.

Calves, often born with depressed immune response
because they have been induced two weeks early so that the owner can
get two more weeks' milk production out of the cow, fail to thrive, are
expensive to rear and there is currently little market for bobby calves.

From one farmer:

The things I have seen. Tiny perfectly formed induced little bodies
lying dead and dying in heaps around cowsheds. Every morning lines of
labouring cows waiting to be helped with calving. If these cows had
been seen to at an earlier time, much pain and suffering and more
successful outcomes would have been achieved.

Outside bobby calf sheds calves that havent quite died yet left to
dehydrate and die in the sun. Or wind. Or rain. Calves crook with Navel
ill, something easily fixed with an antibiotic, not treated and left to
die. Stretched out and suffering on the shed floor. Often being stood
on by others because the pens are too full.

Induced cows foetuses dying inside them and becoming mummified.
Induced cows dying just because inducing is rough on their metabolic
systems.

Bernard Hickey has posed the following questions:

Are we using water properly? Are large herd dairy farmers paying a fair price for that water?

Are these large herd farms and their debt levels sustainable when they eventually have to pay for greenhouse emissions?

Has some land been converted that is not sustainable without the Fonterra payout being higher than NZ$5/kg

Are some large dairy farms financially unsustainable given likely long term payout levels and their current debt levels?

Is the intensification of land use, particularly through nitrate leaching, destroying our waterways?

Are the managers of these large herd farms, who are often employees
and contractors rather than share milkers or owners, up to the task?

Are the workers on these farms, who are often from the Philippines,
India and Indonesia, well trained enough to keep themselves and their
animals safe?

Are the processes for monitoring animal welfare and staff welfare strong enough and well-funded enough?

Is MAF focused too much on enabling growth in output and not enough on monitoring sustainability?

Is Fonterra monitoring the quality of its suppliers/shareholders
closely enough? Are its penalties and sanctions for suppliers strong
enough?

Is reform needed in the bobby calf industry, given prices are now so low it isn’t often economically viable to feed calves?

I hope some good comes from this concerted effort to change dire animal welfare and environmental practices which are bringing great shame to this country.

Poor management and the pressures of massive debts obtained during
rapid expansion meant this farm was so poorly managed that none of the
staff trained the calves to drink milk, allowing them to die of
dehydration in a muddy pen even though their trough was often full.

Read the full story. Be warned - this is sickening reading and another nail in the coffin of New Zealand's clean, green image.

May 20, 2009

While roundly condemning cruel pig farming practices last night on TV One News and Close Up, TV One then ran How the other half lives at 9.30 on hunting, seemingly in contradiction of their earlier stand on animal welfare.

We saw pig hunters and their dogs chasing, bailing up and sticking a large Captain Cooker pig, although Marc Ellis delicately turned the other way to avoid the awkward bit when the pig was dispensed.

Pig dogs have strong jaws which allow them to hold onto a pig until the hunter can get close enough to put the knife in. As anyone who has ever been bitten knows, dog bites are extremely painful. To die this way must be agonising and terrifying.

We appear to have contradictory attitudes to pig welfare. We hail pig hunters as heroes, while condemning local farmers for intensive farming practices, and continue to support imports of cheap, intensively farmed Canadian pork.

I don't agree with pigs being confined - either in crates or concrete pens - and I think the current media campaign has given the industry a big wake-up call. And let the public know that if it wants piggies gambolling in the meadow - and, as Claire Browning notes, pork for the Sunday roast - they're going to have to pay a bit more.

As a country that pushes the grass-fed angle when marketing lamb and beef, we have up till now ignored the plight of pigs.